Methods for joining aluminum and aluminum alloys to refractory substances are known in the prior art. However, the prior art methods each suffer from one or more serious disadvantages making them less than entirely suitable for their intended purpose.
For example, Donomoto et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,207, issued May 22, 1984, describes composite materials comprising alumina or carbon reinforcing fibers compounded with a matrix metal consisting essentially of an aluminum-magnesium alloy. Composites made with alloys containing about 0.5-4.5 wt % magnesium were found to have optimum bending strength and bending fatigue strength. However, formulation of the composites requires pressurization at approximately 1000 kg/cm.sup.2 in order to infiltrate the molten matrix metal into interstices of the mass of reinforcing fibers.
Riewald et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,204, issued Mar. 15, 1977, claims a composite material comprising an aluminum-lithium alloy matrix reinforced with polycrystalline alumina fibers. Molten alloy is infiltrated into the fibers by creating a pressure differential either by applying a vacuum to the mold or a positive pressure to the metal or a combination of both.
It is a principal objective of the present invention to provide a method of bonding aluminum and aluminum alloys to a refractory material wherein the refractory material is wet by the metal.
A further objective of the invention is to provide a method that does not require application of a pressure differential to combine a metal and refractory material into a composite.
An advantage of the present invention is that the method is useful for combining both pure aluminum and aluminum alloys with refractory materials.
Additional objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art from the following specification and claims.